State-owned Indian Oil Corporation has found about 13 lakh suspected multiple connections of LPG in Northern States, roughly 26 per cent of total connections in the region.

“We have found about 12.97 lakh LPG connections that are suspected to be multiple and we are taking action after verifying them,” an official of Indian Oil said.

These multiple connections have been found in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir, where Indian Oil has nearly 50 lakh LPG connections.

Of the total multiple connections, the company found 11.84 lakh connections under ‘different names same address’ category while rest are under ‘same name same address’, he said.

Out of multiple connections detected so far, about 12.21 lakh connections have either been blocked, de-activated or terminated by the Indian Oil as part of a nation-wide campaign of ‘One Household and One LPG Connection’.

Over three lakh LPG connections have been blocked while 9.15 lakh connections (who did not take refill over last one year) have been de-activated and about 3,000 extra connections have been terminated or surrendered by the consumers, official added.

“We are now left with 76,533 extra LPG connections that are yet to be blocked,” he said.

Oil marketing companies, under the ‘One Household and One LPG Connection’ have been asking customers to surrender their extra or multiple connections. Customers have been given time till October 31 for surrendering their extra connections, otherwise erring consumers will face permanent disconnection and penal action under the Essential Commodities Act.

The official further said that the connections that had been blocked could be re-activated by surrendering extra connection after completion of KYC formalities.

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